~ Thoughts … deep and otherwise

Monthly Archives: October 2017

Our political-party way of legislating what’s good for the general populace is outdated.

If and when you accept that premise, it logically follows that the way Congress does business these days also is outdated. The “Democrat” and “Republican” labels are given much higher stature than the label of “federal lawmaker.”

The Democrat-Republican divide appears to be growing wider and more acrimonious in both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate, where gridlock rules. That divide constitutes a large crack in the foundation of congressional cooperation and statesmanship. And it apparently has put a roadblock in front of all incentive for individual, prudent and independent critical thinking.

Admittedly, the two major political parties will never “come together” – a tired phrase we hear from so many empty barrels these days. But progress might not be so daunting if we just stop seeing everything in blue and red.

What’s the solution?

The first step would be to do away with the party-affiliated caucuses on Capitol Hill. Create an environment so that each U.S. senator and each U.S. representative knows and understands the content in each and every bill that comes out of the hopper on its way to its first subcommittee hearing. That’s why members of Congress have staffs – to research the proposed legislation and present pros and cons to help each respective senator and representative decide which way to vote in committee and on the full floor.

Without the caucus to use as a crutch, perhaps the “party-line vote” language might melt away none too soon in the reporting of congressional action.

“Majority leader” and “minority leader” roles would go the way of the buffalo. Members of Congress might even feel less inclined to allow themselves to be brainwashed by oppressive party leadership.

Of course, there is one drawback to this strategy. If it’s carried out, intriguing TV melodramas such as “House of Cards” and “Game of Thrones” would lose their footing.

An e-mail is making its rounds over the name of one Bruce Lindner, who is not further identified. Quite possibly, he is the cornerstone blogger on the Website “The Blue Route,” and his liberal opinions are published in several newspapers, including the Portland Oregonian under “satire/rants.”

The e-mail makes several unattributed and unsubstantiated claims, which exposes them as being suspect in the eyes of discerning readers. The e-mail addresses the proposed Trump tax-cut plan, which is a political hot potato amid other plans bouncing around in Congress these days.

Under the banner “just the facts, ma’am,” Lindner asserts that “some folks” – aka the ultra-rich — will make out like bandits if the Trump proposal is adopted. The top 1 percent and .1 of a percent of taxpayers – those who pay the most dollars in taxes – will pocket 80 cents of every dollar cut from Medicare and Medicaid, he states.

Lindner leaves you cold as to how he arrived at that conclusion, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. Under the Trump proposal as it has been outlined in the media, the upper crust will pay taxes at the same rate they’re paying now. They will be the only ones to NOT benefit from the proposed tax cuts.

Then there’s Medicare and Medicaid. Lindner states that under the Trump tax-cut proposal, $473 billion will be cut from Medicare over the next 10 years, while $1 trillion will be cut from Medicaid during the same period. The cuts purportedly will impact the disabled, people with special needs, and 60 percent of older Americans who require nursing-home assistance.

Turns out that’s baloney, too.

Do the math. The combined cuts to Medicare and Medicaid under Trump’s plan — if they are what Lindner says they are — total approximately $100.05 billion each year for the 10-year period. Hold on to that figure for a minute.

For 2014, “The Economist” reported that Medicare and Medicaid fraud that year amounted to $98 billion. (The year 2014 is the most recent year for which these statistics are available. And the dollar amount of fraud likely has grown since then, right along with runaway federal spending.)

So, if the Medicare and Medicaid administrators can cut out the fraud and the waste in their programs — then eliminate the duplicity in their errant payouts to bona fide recipients — none of the legitimate recipients has to suffer anything.

And that list of the 15 poorest states in the U.S. that will suffer the most from the Trump tax-cut plan? It’ll self-destruct faster than the mythical mission-dispensing mechanism in the “Mission Impossible” movies.

Vice President Mike Pence, who was in the stadium to attend Sunday’s Indianapolis Colts home game. Pence abruptly walked out with wife Karen after players with the visiting San Francisco 49ers took a knee during the pre-game National Anthem. Pence soon after stated that he and President Donald Trump “will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our flag, or our National Anthem.”

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who is the first NFL owner to take a stand like Pence on the “take a knee” thing. Jones has declared that any Cowboys players who elect to take a disrespectful knee during the National Anthem will then take a mandatory seat on the bench and not play in the day’s football game.

Federal Environmental Protection Agency director Scott Pruitt, who says he will sign a new rule to override the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, effectively ending the war against coal-fired power plants. Pruitt says no federal agency should ever use its authority “to declare war” on any sector of the U.S. economy.

Losers

Northern Michigan University, for offering a bachelor of science degree in medicinal plant chemistry — in other words, a diploma for cultivating marijuana.

Mega-movie producer and tantrum-prone Harvey Weinstein, for allegedly engaging in decades of sexual harassment involving multiple women and hush-money payoffs, according to the New York Times.

Self-traumatized Robert James Kuefler, 60, of suburban Minneapolis, who kept the decomposing remains of his mother and his twin brother in his house for nearly a year after they died of natural causes. Kuefler’s explanation: He loved his mother and his brother so much that he could not man up and bring himself to report either of the two deaths to authorities.

City officials in Los Angeles, who covered up a public statue of Christopher Columbus as they celebrated for the first time something they are calling Indigenous Peoples Day, a blatant slight aimed at the adventurer credited with opening North America’s wilderness to the people of Europe.

By now, everybody has heard of deranged sniper Stephen Paddock using a tricked-out AR-15 rifle and some of at least 20 other firearms Sunday night to kill 59 people and wound more than 500 others attending a Las Vegas country music concert below him as he mercilessly shot from his 32nd-floor room at the Mandalay Bay hotel casino.

It didn’t take long for the anti-gun politicians to ramp up their rhetoric about adopting stricter firearms and ammunition laws.

But it doesn’t matter if the environment is a free republic or a totalitarian dictatorship, bad things are going to befall good people.

No amount of governmental hand-wringing, lawmaking or interference is going to change that. Go ahead and ease the restrictions on noise suppressors. Go ahead and outlaw bump stocks. In either case, the black market will move in, and there still will be plenty of both available for purchase. (Although the silencer issue baffles many. The gun lobby maintains that silencers protect the shooter’s hearing. But that’s what earmuffs, ear buds and ear plugs are for, right? What’s wrong with those devices?)

Far more good, law-abiding citizens in these United States own guns and use them in a safe manner then there are diabolical gun owners bent on killing other people. Are we going to continue to punish the good folks just because we think one more anti-gun law might protect us from the bad guys? That’s like limiting or permanently grounding all air transportation after the next jetliner goes down.

As Congressman Steve Scalise — himself a victim of gun violence — declared in the wake of Las Vegas, we have plenty of gun laws already on the books. All we have to do is enforce them.

We are the products of our own social evolution. The best thing we can do in the wake of incidents such as what happened in Las Vegas is to champion the “see something, say something” narrative. Surely SOMEbody must have seen Stephen Paddock carrying duffel bags and guitar cases multiple times up to his room. And nobody took notice of the cameras he mounted in the hotel corridor? (I guess it’s possible to overlook something like that, considering how our society by and large has turned into a bunch of sheep who are afraid of their own shadows.)

The next best strategy would be to install body and baggage scanners at all the entrances to casinos everywhere and double-lock all casino service doors (and outfit them with central alarms). But that idea would displease most casino owners, because it would deter business as usual.

So, what’s the answer? Unfortunately, there is no good, effective answer. It’s a jungle out there. When you choose to wade into it, you take your life into your own hands. And you hope that the local police are doing far more than handing out tickets for failure to wear a seat belt.